Hearings to discuss NRG’s power plant

Company and city disagree on location

Hoffmann said that despite the state’s divergence into solar and wind generation, it will still need power from fossil fuels, a dependable supply source.

Garuba, the Carlsbad spokesman, said even if that’s so, there’s no reason to build the plant at the ocean, pointing out that the 550-megawatt Palomar Energy Center in Escondido came on line in 2006, many miles from the ocean.

“Even if it was the right location, the (Carlsbad) project as it’s been defined is unacceptable,” Garuba said, contending it doesn’t conform with the city’s redevelopment law, among other things.

He said the city’s been willing to locate the plant away from the coast, but “a desolate part of the desert’s better than a populated part of North County.”

Hoffmann said that view articulates why it’s so hard to build a plant and why it makes sense to build one in an area that’s already industrialized, as is the coastal location.

“Where could you put this plant in San Diego where somebody wouldn’t raise an objection to the plant or the transmission lines?” he said, noting that the site already has the necessary gas, transmission and water lines.

Besides the Carlsbad City Council other groups, including Power of Vision, a group of Carlsbad residents, and the Center for Biological Diversity, object to the plant.